Stephen A. Smith has consistently been on the wrong side about Colin Kaepernick. The most recent prominent example of this came in August, when he spent days on ESPN’s air insisting that Jay-Z’s cynical partnership with the NFL was real social progress, and everyone should move past Kaepernick’s unemployment.
On Saturday, Kaepernick was back in the spotlight after a chaotic workout for eight NFL teams that was moved at the last second. A few hours after the workout, Smith uploaded a video where he said the last-minute changes were evidence that Kaepernick “don’t wanna play.”
“He wants to be a martyr,” Smith said. “But guess what? It ain’t working this time…If he had showed out, I’m here to tell you, I believe he’d have had a job inside two weeks.”
Smith’s claim that Kaepernick intentionally self-sabotaged his chances of making millions of dollars as an NFL quarterback is ridiculous, and it kicked off a fight between Smith and Kaepernick’s strongest ally in the NFL, Panthers safety Eric Reid. Smith had attacked Reid this summer when he criticized the Jay-Z deal. When Reid called Saturday’s Kaepernick workout what it was, a sloppy PR stunt, Smith went on ESPN and said that Reid should retire because he’s a “professional complainer.”
Reid finally responded Saturday night, saying that Smith was “tap dancing for the NFL.”
.@stephenasmith Tap dancing for the NFL like ??. Damn straight Colin wants to control the narrative! He supposed to trust the organization that blackballed him and has done absolutely nothing in good faith??? Born on Tuesday, just not last Tuesday. https://t.co/EKztmcrDbu pic.twitter.com/gz0xnDe10e
— Eric Reid (@E_Reid35) November 17, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Smith responded with an intense tweetstorm directed at Reid, saying things like “You got the nerve to call out the NFL when your beef was supposed to be with society in regards to police brutality and racial oppression.” He also criticized Kaepernick for showing up to the workout in a t-shirt that read Kunta Kinte.
Hasn’t acknowledged that? But life isn’t fair. It damn sure ain’t ideal. And at some point, you’ve got the grab the opportunity. Kap’s occurred today. And what does he do: alters the process, and shows up with a T-Shirt alluding to SLAVERY @E_Reid35. For a JOB INTERVIEW! When
More Top Picks Best Migraine Glasses For Outdoor Use
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) November 17, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Smith continues to be offended that Reid criticizes him, Jay-Z, and Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, who Reid called a “sellout” and “neo-colonialist” last year for his partnership with the NFL.
He ended his rant by tweeting at Reid that “Maybe the enemy is YOU, your childish tendencies, and your unwillingness to accept that you can’t run a damn thing but so much when your hand is out for someone else’s dime or product.”
are you — yes, you @E_Reid35 — going to wake the hell up and realize that maybe, just maybe, the enemy at THIS POINT ain’t the NFL. It’s not Malcolm Jenkins, Jay-Z or ME. Maybe the enemy is YOU, your childish tendencies and your unwillingness to accept that you can’t run…….
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) November 17, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
a damn thing but so much when your hand is out for someone else’s dime or product. Especially when you haven’t played in 3 years, when you were 1-10 in your last 11 games as a starter and the top-4 league MVP candidates are all black @E_Reid35. When will you learn?
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) November 17, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Smith then admitted that he had furiously been banging out these tweets while driving, writing that “Excuse the couple of spelling errors. I was driving before pulling off the road.”